Chasing Canucks catch the Stars with 5-4 OT winBack to video

Sure, it’s only mid-November. But this four-game homestand for Vancouver might be the best chance the Canucks have to stop their free-fall, build some confidence and climb back toward the pack they have been chasing all season.

That’s why the 5-4 overtime win against the Stars was, in the context of the pro-sports alternate universe, so important for the Canucks.

Not only did they collect their first home win since Oct. 20, they did it the hard way.

When you surrender the opening goal in 14 out of 16 games and hold a lead after two periods only once, the hard way is all you have.

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The Canucks, who generated two goals in five games recently and are the league’s lowest-scoring team, pumped in four goals in the game’s final 18 minutes on Sunday.

They overcame third-period deficits of 3-1 and 4-3 and survived a dispiriting call when Alex Burrows’ apparent tying goal with 7:08 left was overturned on a coach’s challenge for goalie interference. The Canucks also overcame a comically bad bounce on the Stars’ go-ahead goal by Antoine Roussel a minute earlier.

Dallas goalie Kari Lehtonen looked vulnerable all night and especially porous when the Canucks pushed in the third period, and the Stars are scuffling along at 6-6-4 when they were expected to take a run at the top of the Western Conference.

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But it wasn’t the opponent who mattered Sunday, just like it won’t be Tuesday when the powerful New York Rangers visit Rogers Arena. The Canucks have to find ways to score and win games and stay afloat.

And Sunday they got their heads above water and filled their lungs with fresh air.

“You want to stay in that fight,” Canuck centre Brandon Sutter said after drawing a faceoff assist on Markus Granlund’s winner from the dot at 1:27 of OT. “You don’t want to fall too far behind and tonight was that game we needed to keep ourselves from a position we don’t want to be in.

“The big win was in New York (5-3 last Tuesday on U.S. election day). We got that win and it gave us a bit of life. Coming home now and getting this one is huge. It feels like it’s been a long two weeks for us with the way we’ve been playing. But you look at the standings and we’re not that far off. We put a couple of wins together and we’re right back in the fight. Tonight’s a good start.”

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There is no evidence that the Canucks are a playoff team.

To give themselves a chance to prove they might be one, they’ve got to give themselves a better chance in games. And that means scoring the first goal more than once every eight games. It means playing with a lead, not forever chasing and playing in fear.

“It sucks that we’ve been doing it all year,” Canuck Bo Horvat said. “But to come back like that against a good team definitely gives us a little confidence. I think this homestand is going to be the turning point in our season. We’ve got to start winning some hockey games.”

Horvat admitted there was a “sinking” feeling when Burrows’ goal was disallowed.

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But rookie minor-league call-up Troy Stecher, all 5-10 of him, lifted everyone when his slapshot tied the game 4-4 with 1:40 remaining in regulation. He deftly sidestepped Stars captain Jamie Benn inside the Dallas’ blue-line and powered a low 45-foot slapshot through Lehtonen.

After scoring his first NHL goal, Stecher might have leaped into the crowd had the sideboards glass not restrained him.

“It’s not acceptable to lose,” the defenceman from Richmond said. “At the same time, we were playing pretty well on some of the nights and we just weren’t getting some of the bounces. So to get the win on home ice is huge for our confidence. If we can carry that into next game … it’s going to be huge for our momentum.”

A lot of things seemed huge. Even Stecher.

Burrows’ overturned goal, so soon after Antoine Roussel’s fluky tiebreaker for Dallas, should have finished off the Canucks.

“There’s no quit,” Stecher insisted. “Obviously, you’re going to be upset with the decision. At the same time, you’ve got to realize there’s still time on the clock and you’re only down one goal and anything can happen.”

Right now, that would make a pretty good mantra for the Canucks’ season.

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